Soccer investors and China

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05:08

Soccer is growing increasingly popular in China. Wei Jia, the Beijing representative of Mailman Group, talked to Global Business about ways to expand their fan base in China.

According to Jia, the best investment choice is to "continuously invest in digital" and product content fitting for different platforms, which will attract more people to become fans.

"The fan base is fundamental for the clubs and leagues to achieve the business catching," she commented.

Jia has worked with some of the biggest teams in major leagues. She thought that clubs and leagues always customize Chinese strategies since they are experiencing different stages of development in China.

"My accessibility for them is that word of 'fitting,'" she said, further explaining with examples. "Futbol Club Barcelona has launched Barca Experience in Haikou city, while Manchester United's experience center in Beijing is about to open. And one of the most influential leagues in China, Bundesliga, just opened an office in Beijing to better offer fan service."

The clubs and leagues "that already have a solid fan base and have good data online" will choose to offer an offline experience for fans in a more "Instagram" style, then engulfing the Internet.

Moreover, Soccerex China, an event which brings together leading football experts from around the world for two days of discussions on the game's development has just started in the city of Haikou, capital of south China's island province of Hainan.

02:51

According to Jia, the event is showing the significance of digitalization in China to the international clubs and leagues, and presenting the importance of brand activation to locals.

In addition to that, the event is also fixated on bettering the governance of football clubs in China so that the investment in the industry has better returns.

And one way to achieve the goal is to send Chinese players abroad to learn from the success of prestigious leagues.

La Liga China managing director Sergi Torrents mentioned, "We are working to create more channels to facilitate more Chinese players to play in the Spanish league."

(With inputs from CGTN Sports Scene)